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Tuesday, September 23, 2003
3 King kidnappers get death verdict
By Giovanni A. Nilles
CEBU -- Three men were sentenced to death Monday for their role in the kidnapping of businessman Regan King in 1998.
In a 17-page decision, Regional Trial Court Branch 14 Judge Raphael Yrastorza Sr. said the defenses of alibi and denial of Marieto Alvizo, Ronald Tumalon and Ronald Caballero could not overcome the positive identification of seven prosecution witnesses, including King himself.
Daniel Cuyno, whose role was to ensure that King could not escape, was sentenced to 20-40 years' imprisonment.
Sergio Divinagracia was convicted as an accessory and will spend eight to 10 year in jail, while Elpedio Varela, who was earlier referred to as Jimmy Borela being a minor then, was penalized with four to five years' imprisonment.
Gemma Sumampong, Jerome Sy and Alfredo Pelinio were not among those convicted Monday.
Sumampong, who acted as the group's cook, became a state witness.
Sy, the man who allegedly identified King as a good target, remains at large and will be tried separately when caught.
Pelinio died in a shootout after escaping from the Bagong Buhay Rehabilitation Center more than three years ago.
Aside from the penalties, Judge Yrastorza ordered all six men to each pay King P50,000 in moral damages.
The judge also ordered the authorities to return the P3.645-million ransom recovered from the culprits.
King and his lawyer Froilan Quijano did not attend the hour-long reading of the decision, citing security reasons.
According to the charge sheet, all the accused conspired to kidnap King on Oct. 21, 1998. They held him hostage for 12 days until his family came up with the P5 million in ransom. They initially demanded for P50 million.
Alvizo, Tumalon, Caballero and the late Pelenio were identified as the armed men who entered Regan's office in the 6R Mercantile at the Mandaue Reclamation Area.
They said they were National Bureau of Investigation agents who had a warrant against King.
Once inside, they ordered the employees to get down on the floor.
Pelenio took P10,000 from the petty cash box, a cellular phone and a two-way radio before taking King to the getaway car.
The young businessman was held for two days in a hideout in Mandaue City before he was transferred to another house in Minglanilla town south of Cebu.
All this time, Pelenio reportedly acted as the leader while Sy picked out King for their target.
Alvizo and Tumalon were backup gunmen; Caballero, the driver; Sumampong, the cook; and Cuyno as the one in charge of ensuring that King would not escape.
Divinagracia and Varela only played a minor part during the pick-up of the P5-million loot, after Pelenio agreed to lower the amount from P50 million.
Sumampong reportedly received P150,000, Caballero and Cuyno each got P190,000, while Varela got P90,000. The share of Pelenio, Divinagracia, Tumalon and Alvizo were not mentioned in the decision.
The police was only able to recover P3.745 million.
Judge Yrastorza ruled that the prosecution was able to establish beyond reasonable doubt the guilt of all the accused.
"Alvizo relies on alibi as his defense claiming that he was somewhere else at the time of the kidnapping. Yet the evidence he presented failed to show that it would be physically impossible for him to be at the scene of the crime nor his claim that he was at Badian fishing was sufficiently corroborated by any disinterested or impartial witness," part of the ruling read.
As for Tumalon's contention that he was already detained before the ransom money could be picked up, the court ruled that this has no effect on the case when taken against the fact that King identified him as one of the men who took him from the office.
Judge Yrastorza gave the same ruling for Caballero, Sumampong's live-in partner, who acted as cook and driver.
"Tumalon, Alvizo and Caballero are, therefore, liable as principals by direct participation in the crime of kidnapping for ransom...(which) in its consummated stage is penalized with the supreme penalty of death regardless of any attending mitigating circumstance," the ruling also read.
The court did not give weight to Cuyno's contention that he, too, was a victim as he was forced by the group to watch over their captive. The court described this contention as "simply incredible and too self-serving."
Cuyno, though, was not viewed by the court as a principal and was spared the death penalty.
As for Divinagracia and Varela, they were seen as mere accessories and were granted two degrees lower than the penalty imposed on the principal actors in the kidnapping incident.
The court ruled that they profited or assisted the other suspects to profit from the kidnapping.
Varela's sentence was reduced one step further after Judge Yrastorza ruled that the special mitigating circumstance of minority (Varela was said to be 15 years old during the kidnapping although earlier news reports said he was only 14) should apply.
Cuyno, Divinagracia and Varela were all given credit for the years they stayed in jail on preventive detention.
As Varela has been behind bars for more than four years, he is qualified to apply for probation. The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), which was tasked with his rehabilitation, earlier reported that Varela has become a leader and an example to the youth at the DSWD rehabilitation center in Candabong, Argao.
Although Judge Yrastorza allowed a P50,000 award in moral damages, he refused to give any exemplary damages saying there is no aggravating circumstance that would merit this.
He also did not impose any actual damages, as the prosecution did not present any evidence to this effect. Sun.Star Cebu
(September 23, 2003 issue)
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